Pictures

Hi Blog, sorry I haven't posted anything for awhile. The only news I have is that my Mom and Sister are coming to visit me in October. I found a picture of my building from skyscrapercity.com. My street is the second one from the right on the bottom (the one most visible) and I'm the second building from the park. Not sure if that made sense. Anyway Buenos Aires looks big in this picture. Also took pictures from my balcony. One looking towards the park and the other away from the park.

New Apartment

Reserved a new apartment for next month in Buenos Aires. Map here. The apartment I'm in right now is really starting to get to me with all the noise. Im looking forward to my new one a lot. I tried to choose the quietest one possible (7th floor with big shutters for any noise). I chickened out on moving to Rosario. Not sure if my Spanish is good enough to move to another city. Spanish has been super frustrating lately. I don't feel like I'm getting any better at speaking from just 4 hours of lessons a week. My comprehension is actually very good, but not knowing how to convey your thoughts into words when you want to is really frustarting. Not too much else going on down here.

Rosario

Went to Rosario with my friend Juan and Bahram yesterday. Juan's Dad agreed to drive us and let us explore the city while he was at a meeting. It was a really fun time. I really like Rosario. We rented bikes which happened to be bright purple ones with a basket and a bell. We rode through parks where it seemed all the locals laughed at us. Did I mention Rosario is famous for it's attractive women? At least they noticed me, haha. After we were done riding bikes we went to a famous restuarant called El Cairo and had dinner with Juan's Dad. Stayed at a hotel last night and drove back today. I'm seriously considering moving to Rosario next month.


Lunch by the water.
National Flag Memorial
After carrying our bikes up a bunch of stepsView over river and the purple bikes
Another viewPost bike ride drink on Cordoba St.

Garden

Did something kind of touristy today. Went to the botanical gardens. I even took a picture! It's probably better when Spring comes around.

Saturday

Took a picture from my friend's balcony last night. Sorry for not posting in a while. Been pretty lazy lately.

Saturday

Went to a working class disco last night called Palermo Club. No tourists in there, haha. It was pretty interesting. You have to be patted down by the police when you go in. Other than that it was just a normal club full of Portenos. I still cant figure out how to type accent marks on this computer. There's suppose to be a squigly line over the N in Portenos. Anyone have any tips?
Oh my Spanish teacher gave me five pesos in coins my last lesson. Score! She said "I'm giving you gold, you know?" She also told me how people sell the coins for more than they are worth or something like that. I didn't understand her completely. Basically some type of corrupt activity. There's lots of corruption here I think. It's rumored that the bad Swine Flu numbers were made up here. People would die in a car wreck but they had Swine Flu and they would count it as a Swine Flu death. It makes sense because all those bad reports came out right before the election. I'm not sure if I should feel better or worse about that. Also all city construction seemed to stop right after the election too. Good for me, no more jackhammers. My apartment is still noisy though. Whenever a bus comes by it sounds like the smoke monster from Lost. I never moved to a different apartment mostly because I'm lazy and I figured I would get used to the buses, which I have.
Yes my maid does a very good job of cleaning my apartment, Mom. She also does all my dishes too. I usually feel bad though and do most of them the day before. I feel kinda weird when she's here too, so I go out and run errands. Not sure if that's normal. Ya Summer, I can't believe it either, the internet is a crazy thing! And yes there are a bunch of players down here, there is even a Tuesday night dinner at a different restaurant each week. Hi Carol! Thanks for making my followers an even ten. My blog is an internet sensation!

Coins are valuable!

When I first got here I didn't understand how important coins were. They are good for all kinds of things like buses, subways and not making the vendors mad. There is like a coin shortage here. Someone is stealing all the coins! I would kill for a peso coin right now. It makes life so much more enjoyable when you have a pocket full of coins here. It's like Christmas morning when the vendor sees you have perfect change. Or when you can quickly pay for your bus/subway trip across town. When I first got here I had a dish full of coins because I would just pay with bills and decline giving the vendors perfect change. I don't go to that store anymore. My maid must have thought I was super rich with all the coins I had. Now I try to help out the vendors because I know they struggle to keep enough change. I was wrong to think however that my supply was endless and now all I have is about twenty of the 10 centavos coins left! Literally people will steal change from tables at restaurants and leave more money in bill form instead.
I can write about mafias, supermarkets and political corruption here if you want. Or at least what I have heard about them in my next post. If anyone is interested comment because I don't want to type unless there is a demand for it. Sorry for the coin rant but I think it's weird and I want to know where they are all going!

Part 2

Sorry, I haven't really felt like blogging in a while. I really have been busy studying Spanish a lot recently. I hate it when I can't understand people here. They talk so damn fast and the dialect is called Castellano. It is much different than what they speak in Mexico and Spain. All the double L's and Y's are said like shh and the tu form is replaced with the vos form complete with all different conjugations. It sounds like Italian actually or so I've been told. Couple times I was confused today actually. Once when the lady at the grocery store check out was trying to explain that I needed to have a bar code on my oranges. So that took a while. And the other when the lady who washes my clothes was trying to explain I was missing a sock. Yes, she takes her job seriously and obviously it's laying on my floor somewhere in my apartment.

As for the rest of my day goes. I usually watch Friends at 1 or take a siesta after lunch if I'm tired. In the afternoon/early evening I work online playing poker. I don't consider myself a professional but more just someone who can make a living from it and hasn't been ready to get another job yet. It does have it's perks though such as work only when I want and pay-checks in American dollars. However I wouldn't recommend anyone to take up poker now. There are too many good players now as opposed to when I started and it's just so much harder.
At night I get together with friends that I've met through poker or through expat forums and have dinner or go out. I have a few local friends too but not many. I really would like to meet more becuase talking with them you learn Spanish so much faster. Anyway dinner is at about 10ish and if I go out it's after 12 usually. The bars don't close here and the locals can stay out well past sunrise so nothing gets going until after 1am at least. I probably went out too much last month, I have been trying to curb that habit recently. Thanks for reading, I'll try to post my next blog sooner!

My boring days! Part 1

I'm about to head to a restaurant called Green Bamboo. Looks pretty good, but that menu looks intimidating. More often than not at a fancy restaurant I just try to make an educated guess. Probably a bad practice for someone with food allergies.
Played some pool last night then went to a disco and DANCED! Rare for me, I'm the worst haha. I made my first Argentine guy friend as well. He's a cool guy but a horrible pool player. He was telling me that girls like foreign accents here. My eagerness to learn Spanish has been renewed! I am actually making a ton of progress in speaking or so my Spanish teacher tells me. I don't ever feel like I am getting better.
Ok typical day for Summer.
If it's one of the days I have Spanish class then it's up and at em at 8AM. Oh noes early! Eat some yogurt, cereal and make some coffee. I actually like having to get up early a few times each week and go somewhere. I take the subway with the rest of Buenos Aires to my Spanish tutor's house which is kinda far away. However recently there have been less people on the subway I'm guessing becuase of the swine flu or Gripe A they call it here. I could get another tutor closer but she's really nice and we get a long well. On the way home I usually stop to get something to eat at a cafe or go to the grocery store if I need to since it's on the way home. To be continued.....(going to dinner)

July 4th

Went to El Alamo last night for July 4th. I had to go there because its the most American place here. I thought I was going to go this year without fireworks but they actually set some off on the roof. They were pretty cool but the ash got in my hair. I guess that's just the price I had to pay. There was a thunderstorm earlier today. Weird winter rain shower.

Oh, I don't have swine flu yet, which is good. I have an idea about why it is bad here. Everyone loves kissing each other here, sort of like in the US when you shake someones hand, here they kiss instead. I mean really it's flu season, maybe they should take a break with all the kissing for a month or two. I was explaining this to someone last night and they agreed. We kissed good bye though, so I don't think my talk was very effective in changing things.

Argentina just declared a swine flu emergency. Kids in Buenos Aires have 4 weeks off from school. The health minister stepped down yesterday as well. Well at least I am not taking the dirty crowded subway. Oh wait yeah I am. Great.

Saturday night took the subway downtown to go to El Alamo bar. Unfortunately it was closed along with all the other bars in Buenos Aires. So took a cab back to Palermo and learned from the cab driver that the bars were closed because of the election on Sunday. Wierd law, Argentines dont drink much anyway. Luckily we found a few places that would serve us beer in Palermo. I went back to El Alamo last night. It's probably the most well known sports bar for english speaking foriegners. I watched my first baseball game on TV since I have been here and ate a philly steak sandwich. Uggh my belt broke last night. I need to go shopping for one today but I have been procrastinating with this blog post.

Summer's questions-
I would like to stay in Argentina for at least a couple more months. It's too hot in NC for me now anyway.

Im planning on visiting a few places down here like the Andes, boat to Uruguay and maybe the falls near Brazil but mostly just staying in Buenos Aires.

I haven't really done anything touristy since I got here like a walking tour. I guess I should do something like that soon. I have gone to some very nice restaurants and had plenty of excellent beef. :)

I chose to come to Argentina after I read about a few people's experiences down here. It seemed like a relatively fun and interesting city to visit. I also knew a little spanish from school so that factored in as well. I didn't know all the girls had bangs!

Besides friends and family, I guess I miss not having to look where I'm stepping all the time. The dog walkers (paseaperros) don't clean up after the dogs, so there is dog poop everywhere on the sidewalk! It's gross especially when it rains. Picture of dog walker. Food that I miss the most is a tie between milk (all I can find is ultra pasteurized milk that smells funny but maybe it's just me) and American candy like Sour Patch Kids.

Tacos

Sorry for not blogging this week. I know I have been disappointing all 7 of my followers. Thanks guys for following! Maybe I have a future in blogging. I really haven't done anything too interesting this past week, mostly just studying and watching Spanish television. I went out last night and met some friends at a Mexican restaurant. We ate tacos and got a bucket of coronas on ice. Mostly we spent our time talking about how intimidating this country is when you get here. Most of it is the language barrier and people speak super fast here. Most of the time I just make an educated guess and say "si." Obviously hilarity ensues when I do the exact opposite of what someone just told me. It's not funny at the time but later it is when you tell another foreigner and they say "oh haha I did the same thing." Also going to a store or restaurant is way different because of the zero customer service. Literally it's like spending your money at their store is a huge burden on them. Oh and don't even think about making someone make change for your hundred. There are a bunch more little annoyances but I'll save them for later.

I have been here almost a month but I feel like I don't even know what Argentina looks like. I think I am set on taking a trip to the Andes next month. I think I am gonna take an overnight bus to Bariloche. Someone was telling me last night they have big reclining chairs to sleep in. I figure it cant be much worse than my noisy apartment.

Here is a picture of the subway I take to my Spanish class. I think they still use the same ones from 1913 on Line A. They are never this clean though, and it's usually packed full of people. I am going to try and bring my camera out from now on so I can take some pictures for you guys.
Oh and please post me some feedback or ask me some questions!

Last Night

Went to a fancy restaurant last night called Quimbombo http://www.quimbombo.com.ar/ It over looks the Buenos Aires skyline on the third floor, very cool view. I had some coronas and teriyaki chicken. It was a very good restaurant. After dinner I went to a bar called sugar. Most of the people there were from the US or England studying here. It was pretty cool, heres their blog with lots of pictures of the place http://sugarbuenosaires.blogspot.com/ You can tell which girls are from Argentina by which ones have the bangs. That hairstyle is super popular with girls here. One thing I like about that bar is that its non smoking until 2. As soon as 2 hits though the whole bar lights up including all the bartenders. Everyone smokes here in general. I think that's one big reason why the girls are all skinny here.

At one point during the evening I look into my beer and there is a huge dead cockroach floating in it. I still don't understand how it got there. I haven't seen one bug the whole time I have been here. I guess it was crawling on the roof, died then fell into my glass. One in a million shot? I showed the guy behind the bar my beer and he said "oh man thats crazy they spray here all the time" and he gave me a replacement beer. At the end of the night I bought a bottle of cheap champagne, shared it with my friend and then walked home. I think for the whole night I spent about 40 dollars. Pretty fair price for a first class meal and a night out.

Yesterday and Today

I am getting a lot more comfortable here. Basic things that were difficult when I first got here like ordering at a restaurant or buying credit for my cell phone are now routine. I am actually starting to get used to the jackhammers too. They drown out the noise from the 30 year old buses that come by every minute. My friend told me last night that public busing was invented here. Not sure how true it is but everyone loves taking the bus and there is a ton of them. I hate them they are old and loud.
Yesterday had a spanish lesson then went walking on Santa Fe Avenue. Found a nice big grocery store and bought some pre-packed steaks and some American food. Hooray! I love that grocery store. I am done going to the little Asian run supermarkets. After that I went and finally bought some earplugs at the pharmacy. When I found them I kinda went nuts and bought three pairs in two different styles. I really am pleased with them but I don't know how I am gonna wake up anymore for my spanish lessons. The ones I like best are the orange kind that people who work at the airport use. Very quiet!
Went out for a little bit last night in Plaza Cerrano with Gerry. Going out here is a little bit different becuase the bars are open 24 hours a day. It's pretty rare that anyone goes out before midnight and they stay out very late too. Everyone likes doing things late here. Dinner is commonly at 10 or even later. Anyway, we got to the bar at about 12:30. Watched a funny show at the first bar involving a transvestite and audience members dancing. Luckily we flew under the radar and did not have to do anything. Phew!! After the show the place turned into a dance club and we didn't feel much like dancing so we went to a little less crazy of a place. Not much happened after that, just a couple beers and I went home around 3 for a nice sleep with my new earplugs.
Today I went to buy some credit for my cell phone and dropped off my clothes at the washing place. It's nice not having to do your own laundry. I could have it delivered but my Spanish isn't quite up to par. I think I am getting a lot better though. I did some of my 40 pages of homework I have to do today. My tutor is pretty big on homework obviously. I'm planning on just vegging out tonight with a big steak and some broccoli or something. Tomorrow night I'm meeting some other Americans who are new here at a nice restaurant. Hopefully that will be fun.

OK, so it turns out that top bill was fake too. I just tried spending it at the store and the Chinese guy took one look and said something to the effect of "hell no that's the worst fake bill ever" and there I am like a deer in headlights.

So last night me and my friend Gerry went out to this very nice restaurant in Palermo called Miranda. This was probably the most trendy restaurant in Buenos Aires. I passed by numerous empty restaurants on my way there but this place was packed. If you have an Argentine girlfriend this was the place to come. It was a very romantic place. Naturally me and Gerry looked pretty gay. The food was pretty awesome though. You can't get steaks like that in the US. When the check came I convinced Gerry to play credit card roulette with me. This is where you have the waiter pick which card to use without looking. It wasn't very easy explaining this to the waiter but he finally got it. Luckily I won and had a free dinner. After dinner we went to a bar in Plaza Cerrano. It was pretty cool, very laidback. After that we went to this enormous club somewhere in Palermo called Crowbar. It's a sister club to the one in Miami? This place was like an airplane hangar full of people dancing to techno. I met a bunch of local girls, one of which broke my heart. :( I had read before that the girls here will play crazy games with you. I now believe that and more. What the hell? Oh well, I ended up leaving about 3 and got a cab. When I left there was still a huge line trying to get into that place. The cab driver seemed really nice and he spoke a little english. I complained to him about the girls and such on the way home. When I got home all I had was a hundred peso bill to pay with. He took my hundred bill and gave me another one and was like OK it's cool. So i got out of the cab and I was like "sweet free cab ride." Then I thought for one second and was like damn I got scammed. He gave me a fake hundred. It wasn't even a very good fake either. Heartbroken and drunk I must have been like the easiest target ever. I made that guy's night for sure. Oh well it's kinda cool having some fake pesos and it was only about 30 bucks. Live and learn I suppose. Here is a picture of the fake money. The bill on top is real. Notice the watermark on the right side of the real one. .

Went on a bar tour in San Telmo last night. The tour guides were pretty cool Americans. I met some fun people and had a good time overall. I woke up this morning to two jackhammers. Double the fun! I thought I had the weekends off from the construction work. Luckily they called it an early day and have left for the afternoon. Just been watching some movies today. The selection of cable channels I have is surprisingly good. Here's a picture from last night. That's me and my friend Gerry.

Friday

Slept pretty good last night. The jackhammer didn't start until 10 this morning. That was a nice surprise. They brought in a big backhow today too. I'm not sure if thats a good thing or a bad thing. Today I plan to go to the ATM. You can only take out around 700 pesos at a time here. Pretty ridiculous as this is only 180 dollars. Makes paying rent difficult as you always have to be going to the bank and getting hit with fees. Also plan on taking my clothes to the laundry place. They don't have do it yourself washing here. They wash your clothes for you and you pick them up later, kinda nice I guess.

I just got word that I got the apartment I visited the other day. It's in a high rise in downtown Recoleta. Here's my new view.
Oh and here is a picture of the construction the city is doing outside my window. It's hard to tell from the picture but there is one guy on the jackhammer in this hole and like five other guys watching him.

Mmmmm Empanadas.

Been eating a lot of these things since I've been here. They are about 60 cents each. Not sure what is in them besides beef. Maybe onions and some chopped egg.
This morning I went to look at an apartment in a different neighborhood (Recoleta). It was pretty nice and on the 13th floor so it was quiet too. Other than that and walking around while the maid cleaned it was a pretty boring day. Big thanks to the 4 people that are officially followers of my blog.

Great Success!

Took the subway to Caballito-Success!
Had two hour Spanish lesson-Success!
Took the subway back to Palermo-Success!
Went to the ATM and withdrew max pesos-Success!
Went to cafe and bought a big turkey sandwich-Success!

Overall successful day.

Spanish lessons

Just about to get on the subway and go to Caballito for two hours of Spanish lessons. Looks pretty far away. I haven't taken the Subway yet. This should be interesting.

Didn't do anything last night but try to catch up on some sleep. Went out the night before to a bar in San Telmo then a couple back in Palermo. The nightlife here is pretty crazy. The younger bars are always packed and people stay out really late. Today I woke up to a jackhammer outside my window before dawn. I really hate that construction. They have been non stop on that jackhammer every weekday I have been here. How much more do they need to hammer? I may start looking for a quieter place for next month becuase the busses are also really noisy on my street.

I forgot to mention that tonight is World Cup qualifying game for Argentina. The head coach is Diego Maradona, arguably the best Soccer player ever. This guy is God here. He made national headlines this morning when he commented on the grass in the stadium. Seriously it was the lead story. Must suck to be the groundskeeper that upset Maradona.

Only took one picture. Found the subway, didn't find the laundry-mat, guess I'll ask my neighbor.

I set up Spanish lessons for next week. The girl giving them lives so far away though. Oh well at least I will get out of my little 2 block bubble. Gonna take some pictures today, since all my followers are asking for more. Be back later with pictures from my long walk to the Subway (5 blocks or so) and hopefully also find a laundry-mat.

My apartment.

My neighbor to the left. I think it's a restaurant?

Made it!

Got to Miami at about 3pm on Friday. Had to get my bag from baggage claim and walk from terminal A to terminal J. If you look at a Miami Airport map you would see that these terminals could not be farther away from each other. It was a fun walk. When I checked in with Argentina Airlines I tried walking away from the counter without my boarding pass. Luckily they yelled at me and I got it. After I checked my bag in I went through security without a hitch and got a nine dollar sandwich from one of the terminal's shops. The flight from Miami was good besides I didn't sleep a wink. They served the flight a very tasty dinner of chicken, vegetables, potatoes, salad and dessert. Also they had free glasses of wine. Which I thought was weird. Free wine? I didn't have any because at that time I was unaware they were free. I saw some really crazy lightning storms above the Amazon. I passed most of the time by listening to past episodes of This American Life on my ipod. They served us breakfast about an hour before we got off the plane, which was also tasty. When we got off the plane we had to wear medical masks and fill out swine flu forms. Once I got my bag and made it through customs I got a taxi. I thought I was getting a radio taxi but I didn't. Im sure my Mother is greatly dissapointed after the hour talk on getting only radio taxis. I think the difference between radio taxis and the type that I got is that radio taxis actually obey traffic laws to some extent. My driver was the Dale Earnhardt of Buenos Aires. We flew past those wussy radio taxis! I finally got to my apartment at about 6am. My nieghbor came down and showed me the basics to my apartment and gave me my keys. She's a very nice writer from Colorado. After I slept she came by again and told me some more stuff about the apartment. I went grocery shopping and made some lunch. Then I went on a little walk of my neighborhood followed by a nap. Well thats about it for today. Goodnight.